mercredi 16 décembre 2009

Last Friday, I talked to "Lost" executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for more than an hour, and I'll publish a complete transcript of our conversation in a few weeks. I especially can't wait for you to read the part about the Ewoks.

here the tibits we got :

From Lindelof and Cuse:

"Lost" executive producer and frequent director Jack Bender will direct the series finale. "He’s definitely directing it. He’s been such a humungous part of the show and he’s our third partner in Hawaii. You know there wouldn’t be anybody else to do it besides him," Cuse said.

As expected, Cuse and Lindelof will write the show's 2-hour series finale. Cuse on the final season and the unveiling of the ending: "We kind of concocted the mythology of the show a long time ago, and it’s like having a Christmas present and you kept it on the shelf a long time and people are finally going to get to open it and see it. So we’re finally getting to deploy the ending of the show and that is exciting to us. It is a story and I think as storytellers, that’s always what’s delicious -- you set up the audience and then you basically finish the story. There’s a payoff and we’re actually going to finally give the audience our payoff."

Cuse said that "Lost" will unveil a "narrative technique" that is "different" this season. He didn't elaborate on what the new technique would be, but he compared the deployment of this Season 6 element to the show's use of time travel in Season 5: "Last year, we committed to this concept of time travel with a certain expectation that some people really might not respond to it. I think the most pleasant surprise was how much people embraced it, because it was difficult and it was much more overtly science fiction, and yet people really seemed to like the season," Cuse said. "But we have the same anxiety about what we’re doing this season. We kind of feel like the fundamental tenet that we’ve tried to follow as storytellers is 'Be bold.' But in being bold sometimes you fall on your face. So, we committed to a narrative approach this season which we feel is bold and it’s different than what we’ve done before. And if it works, it’ll be exciting, but it might not be everybody’s cup of tea either."

Lindelof on whether constructing the final seasons and finale have put more pressure on them and on the show: "Despite what people think or say, so much of it has been talked about and planned for years now that you’re just kind of executing the plan to the best of your ability and changing the plan when it’s not working, but otherwise, you’re kind of married to the inevitable -- the stuff that we want to do."

Both Cuse and Lindelof sounded adamant about not wanting the show to continue in future TV or film projects (so presumably we won't see "Lost Babies" show up on ABC Family). They also said they aren't thinking about writing a "making of" book. Lindelof: "The one promise that we are making is that what we’re not going to do is leave the show hanging so we can pick up the ball and run with it two years from now in some other television project or movie. I think that we owe ourselves and the story and the audience a sense of finality. ... You can’t break up with somebody and say, 'Let’s not go out anymore, but I still want to sleep together, I still want to live in the same house, and we should still go on dates all the time.' No. If it’s over, it’s over."

Cuse said the duo is going "off the grid" after the finale airs in order to avoid "having to interpret the ending." More from Cuse on this topic: "We’ve always felt that one of the compelling elements of 'Lost' is its intentional ambiguity. The fact is, it’s open for interpretation and discussion and we feel like we would be doing a disservice to the fans and the viewers to say, 'No, you must only look at this in one way.' We don’t think that is really good for the show or for people’s ability to read into the show what they want…. We really feel we are very committed to this notion of not sort of stripping the show of its essential mystery. I mean, mystery exists in life and we kind of always go back to the midi-chlorians example [in the 'Star Wars' prequels]. Your understanding the Force was not aided by knowing that there were little particles swimming around in the bloodstreams of Jedi. There are sort of fundamental elements of mystery and magic to the show that are unexplainable, and any attempt to explain them would actually harm the show, and in our opinion, the legacy of the show. So we’re trying to find that kind of right blend of answering questions, but also leaving the things that should be mysterious, mysterious."

Cuse on their approach to the final season and the finale: "All we can do is trust our guts, which is kind of where we’ve been from the beginning. We started the show sitting in my office every morning, having breakfast, talking about what we thought was cool and whatever we both would get excited about would go into the show. That’s how we’ve approached it [all along] and that’s how we approached it at the end. So, our barometer can only be: Does this ending feel satisfying to us and to the other writers? And if we can achieve that, we feel like we will have done what we can do and what we should do."

Will 18 hours be enough for the last season? (By the way, Season 6 will consist of a two-hour season premiere, 13 episodes and three-hour series finale that will air over two weeks -- but as Cuse joked, "I’m sure the network will sell it as a six-part finale if they can.") Cuse: "For us, [18 hours] is just about right. I mean, we aren’t sitting here feeling like, 'Oh my God, we need a ton more hours to tell the rest of our story.' It feels like it’s going to work out just fine. It will have been the right length."

Below are ABC's promotional photos of the Season 6 "Lost" cast. Don't look if you don't want to know who will be getting a fair amount of screen time in Season 6.

I don't consider the bits of information that come before the photos spoilery. In fact, I don't think of them as spoilers but rather as Informational Tidbits. But on the off chance that you don't want to know these Season 6 Informational Tidbits, here's your chance to jump out now.

Last bits:

Time-wise, Season 6 begins exactly where Season 5 left off. Cuse: "There’s an eight-month gap [between seasons], but when you actually buy the DVDs, you’ll put the finale in for Season 5 and then you’re put the first disc in for Season 6 and it will feel like a very continuous experience."

I jokingly suggested that this season we'd see either the much-discussed Zombie Season or at the very least a "Lost" musical. Unfortunately it was a no on both counts, but Cuse did say that in Season 6, we will see "a character singing."

Via his Twitter account, Cuse confirmed the return of a "Lost" guest actor here and the identity of a new-to-"Lost" guest actor here.